“Oh my God, Ava, what time is it?” Aine said when she shook her awake.
“I don’t know…close to seven.”
Her sister rubbed her eyes and sat up in bed. “What’s going on?” she asked.
“I have to leave.”
“Wait a minute. What?”
“Wake up, for Christ’s sake. I said I’m leaving.”
Aine’s eyes opened wide. “Sit down and tell me what’s going on.”
Ava sat on the edge of the other twin bed in the room.
“I just saw a woman go in Tabon’s front door.”
“Now?”
Ava nodded. “I couldn’t sleep, so I was looking for something to read. She pulled her car into the garage, closed the door, and then went inside the house. I couldn’t see Tabon, but someone opened the door for her, and I didn’t see Gunner’s SUV parked where it had been last night.”
“I’m so sorry, Ava,” said Aine. “I really thought he liked you.”
So had she, but obviously, the word had a loose definition. He may like her, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t invite someone else into his bed when she turned him down.
“What are you going to do?”
“Catch a flight home as soon as I can.”
“I think there’s an airport in San Luis Obispo.”
Ava nodded. “I’ll go see when the first flight out is, and then figure out how I’ll get there.”
“I can take you.”
“That’s okay. Go back to sleep.”
“As if that’s an option. I’ll just pack up and go home with you.”
“What about Penelope and Tara? I doubt they’ll want to leave so soon. And if we take the car, how are they supposed to get around?”
“Good point. We could call a car service.”
“You should stay,” Ava told her.
“No. It’s okay. Really.”
“I’d rather you did.”
“Oh.”
“I’m humiliated and embarrassed, Aine. I just want to go home, and I’d rather be alone.”
Her sister nodded. “Let me know when your flight is, and we’ll decide from there.”
—:—
His phone pinged right as Razor was pulling into the driveway of the Harmony house. He opened the alert from the tracking device he’d planted in Ava’s purse, and saw she was on the move.
“What’s happening?” he barked at Alegria when she answered his call.
“The subject left by car ten minutes ago.”
“By herself?”
“No. A car service, sir.”
“And you let her?”
“I do have eyes on them.”
“What’s your twenty?”
Alegria gave him the coordinates of their current location. They were headed south on the highway, so it wouldn’t be long before they drove by Harmony.
“Change of plans,” he said when Gunner answered his call. “Ava is on the move.”
“Roger that. Does Alegria have her covered?”
“Yes, but an unknown driver picked her up at the house roughly fifteen minutes ago.”
“I’m right behind you,” Gunner told him.
Razor watched Ava’s movements on the app, ready to pull onto the highway as soon as they passed by.
He looked in his rear-view mirror and saw Gunner on Mercer’s Ducati.
They’d been following the car Ava was in for twenty minutes. She appeared to be the sole occupant other than the driver. If he had to guess, he’d predict she was on her way to the airport.
He pressed the call button on his vehicle’s steering wheel, and asked the computerized assistant to connect him to Doc.
“See if Ava is booked on any flights out of SLO,” he said.
“Merrigan’s thoughts as well when we saw she was on the move. She is, and it leaves for JFK in a little over an hour.”
“Traveling alone?”
“Appears that way.”
“Thank Fatale for me,” Razor said before disconnecting the call.
Ava was sneaking home, by herself, without as much as a word to him. Why?
She’d seemed miffed at him when they went to the grocery store last night, but he had no idea why she’d done such an about-face. One minute she was telling him she wanted to feel him pulsing inside her, the next she announced she wanted to go to bed alone.
Razor hit the call button on the steering wheel a second time, and asked to be connected to Aine McNamara.
“I’d ask how you got my number, but I supposed you can get that kind of information fairly easily,” she said.
“Why did your sister leave?”
“Getting right to the point.”
“Yep. Help me out here, Aine. What the hell happened?”
He heard her snicker, and mumble something unintelligible.
“What’s that?”
“She saw a woman going into your place this morning.”
He’d ask what she’d been doing up at that hour, but then he’d only sound guilty.
“She works for me.”
“TMI, Razor.”
“What’s TMI?”
“Too much information.”
“I know what it means. Why is a woman working for me TMI?”
“I’d rather not know the details of what she does for you.”
Aine knew enough about K19 and the kind of work they did, that he could be partially honest with her.
“She’s an operative working on assignment for our firm.”
“Requiring her to arrive at dawn?”
“That’s right.”
“I doubt Ava will believe you.”
He got the picture, but that didn’t explain her sudden change last night.
“She really likes you, Razor. She told me she was embarrassed and humiliated.”
“Understood.”
“I’m asking you not to play with her, Razor. The persona she projects isn’t who she really is.”
“I hear you, Aine, and I have no intention of hurting her. I like her very much as well.”
Razor scrubbed his face with his hand after disconnecting the call, and thought hard about how he could convince Ava to come back to the house with him, without having to divulge that he was, in essence, her bodyguard. It would be hard enough to come up with a reason for how he knew she was about to board a flight home.
He really wished Quinn and Mercer hadn’t left. At least Quinn understood the way the team worked, and might have been able to convince Ava to give him a shot.
Razor pulled into the short-term lot and parked while Alegria and Gunner followed the car Ava was in to the terminal departure area.
I’ll make contact, he messaged both of them.
He sprinted inside, hoping to catch Ava before she went through security.
When she approached near where he stood, he saw that she’d been crying. Did he really matter that much to her?
“Hi,” he said, stepping out of the shadows.
Ava put her hand on her heart.
“I’m sorry I startled you.”
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to see you here.”
Razor shook his head.
“Why, though?”
“Because I don’t want you to leave.”
“Try again,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“Tell me the truth, Razor. Why are you here?”
“That is the truth.”
Ava turned to walk away.
“Wait,” he said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “Would you consider sitting down with me for a minute?”
Ava looked at her phone. “For a minute.”
He led her over to a bank of seats with no one sitting nearby.
She sat and crossed her arms.
“First of all, the woman you saw going into my house this morning works for K19. She’s an operative on assignment for us.”
Ava nodded and Razor took a deep breath.
“You have a clear picture of how Quinn an
d Mercer met?”
She nodded for the second time.
“Mercer was on assignment, protecting her.”
“Yes. I’m aware of that, Razor.”
“But he had feelings for her that had nothing to do with his assignment. He genuinely cared about her, and I’d go so far as to say he loved her, even in the beginning.”
“My flight is boarding soon.”
God, how could he put this in a way that wouldn’t make it sound like his only interest in her was as an asset he needed to protect.
“The case against Dash Finnegan is more complex than anyone has led you to believe. You may think you’re testifying solely against him; however, the feds and the CIA are more interested in bringing down the people he works for than the man himself.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I have been hired to protect you, Avarie.”
He waited for her to process what he told her, watching in agony as her eyes filled with tears.
“It was all an act?”
“Never. What I feel for you is very real. I told you I couldn’t stop thinking about you, but the truth is that I’ve spent the last year wanting to know what it would be like to kiss you, wanting to just be with you—that was all the truth, sweetheart.”
“When did your assignment, or whatever you call it, start?”
“Yesterday.”
“That’s why you invited us to stay with you?”
“It is. However, that isn’t all there is to it, Ava. I wanted you to stay with me. I wanted you, any way I could have you. I still do.”
“What would you do if I got on my flight.”
“I’d go with you.”
“Is the woman working with you to protect me?”
“Yes. As is Gunner.”
“Who else knows about this?”
“Doc and Merrigan, and our contact at the agency.”
“Do you know who Dash works for?”
Razor nodded, wishing she hadn’t asked.
“You can’t tell me, can you?”
“No. I can’t.”
He’d give anything to know what Ava was thinking, but he’d be patient and wait for her next move. Would she get on that plane? If she did, would he be able to get a ticket in time to take the same flight? If not, he’d have to put someone in New York on her detail until he arrived.
“I’m glad you were finally honest with me.”
“There’s something else I want you to know. I asked for this assignment, Ava. The truth is, Gunner tried to talk me out of it. Doc did too.”
“Why?”
“Because falling for your asset is against the rules, and for me, it was already too late. I fell for you long before I knew there was an assignment.”
“If it’s against the rules, why are you doing it?”
Razor leaned closer and cupped her cheek with his palm. “Because I could never forgive myself if something happened to you, and there was no one else I trusted enough to keep you as safe as I will.”
Her eyes were fixated on his, as though she was trying to reconcile the conflicts of what he was telling her.
“What are you going to do, Ava? Will you come back to the house with me, or will you get on the plane?”
“Is anyone else in danger because of me?”
“No.”
“Not Aine?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
“Have you had sex with the woman who came to your house this morning?”
That question was so far out of left field, Razor almost felt as though she was conducting a lie-detection test.
“I have not. What else do you want to know, Ava?”
She studied him, not giving him any indication of what she might say or do next. Razor knew her flight had to be boarding soon, but he refused to look away from her even to check the time.
“This can’t be like Mercer and Quinn. I can’t have a relationship with you, Razor. I know that means two different things to you and me. But for me, it means I cannot have sex with you.”
He nodded, hating that since they started talking, she hadn’t called him Tabon once.
“Here’s the other thing. If you lie to me, I’m going to ask you quit this…assignment, or whatever it is, and get someone else to take over.”
“I can’t make that promise, Ava.”
“I see.”
“I’m being as honest as I know how right now. You may have questions that I can’t answer. Or won’t answer. I’ll lie to keep you safe, Ava. I’ll do anything to keep you safe.”
“Couldn’t you just be honest instead? If you can’t tell me something, just say so.”
“I can say here and now that I can, but if it comes down to your safety, and I feel I have no choice but to keep the truth from you, that’s what I’ll do.”
“What about the other thing I said?”
That was more difficult for him to talk about. In his heart, he hoped she didn’t mean it. But if she wanted honesty, he’d give it to her.
“I want you to listen to me, Avarie.”
She nodded.
“I’m crazy about you. There are times I feel like I want you more than I want to breathe. The truth is, I hope you change your mind. In the meantime, though, I want you to stay with me, not in Gunner’s side of the house, in mine. That doesn’t mean we have to share a bed; it just means that now that you know the true nature of what is happening, having you that close will make it a lot easier for me to do my job.”
“Anything else?” she asked.
“Yeah. I don’t want you to call me Razor. My name is Tabon.”
“That’s your father’s name.”
“True, but just like you are insisting on my being honest, I am insisting you call me Tabon.”
“Okay,” she said softly.
“Ready to go back to the house?” he asked.
“I checked my bag.”
Razor shook his head. “Gunner intercepted it.”
“He’s here?”
“Yep.”
“Is the woman here?”
“She is, Ava. She’s helping to protect you.”
“I don’t want her to.”
Razor scrubbed his hand over his face. “Can I ask why not?”
“Because I don’t.”
“We can talk about it, okay?”
“It’s a deal breaker, Tabon.”
“If you feel that strongly, I can have her reassigned.”
“I do.”
9
If Tabon had asked again why she was insisting the woman, whatever her name was, not be part of the group of people protecting her, Ava wasn’t sure she could be as honest as she was asking him to be with her.
Plain and simple, she was jealous. The woman she’d seen this morning was ridiculously beautiful, and certainly, if they were colleagues, far better suited for him than she was.
Thankfully, he hadn’t asked, so she didn’t have to lie.
“I’m in short-term parking,” he said as they walked out of the airport.
She nodded, hating how unsure of herself she was feeling. This wasn’t normal for her. No matter how insecure she felt on the inside, Ava had always been able to project nothing but confidence. Aine had asked her about it so many times when they were growing up. How she did it, and also, why Aine hadn’t gotten that particular personality trait?
Ava couldn’t say. All she knew was that, right now, she didn’t have it either. When she was with Tabon, she questioned herself in a way she never had before.
It was probably a good thing she’d told him she wouldn’t be able to have sex with him. The anxiety she would’ve felt about whether she was good enough for him or not, would have ruined it for her anyway.
“What about Aine?” she asked.
“It would be better if she wasn’t aware of the situation.”
“Which means I have to lie to her.” Ava sighed heavily. Maybe there was a part of her that was beginning to understand how hard it would be for some
one in Tabon’s position to be completely honest.
He stopped walking, so she did too.
“There isn’t anything about this that’s easy, Ava. I wish there was a way for you to talk to Quinn, because she could give you some insight like only a person who has been in your position would be able to. It was much harder for Quinn’s mother.”
“Lena?”
Tabon nodded. “She never had a normal life, not since she was younger than you are now.”
“How did she die?”
She watched as Tabon closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I can’t tell you that, Ava.”
“I understand.”
He walked a few feet farther and stopped again. “This is me,” he said pointing to a dark gray Porsche Cayenne. The liftgate opened, and he put her bag in the back, and then opened the passenger door for her.
They were a few minutes into the drive when a call came through from Doc. She knew because his name appeared on the screen built into the dash. Tabon didn’t answer.
“It’s not the kind of conversation I want to have while I’m driving,” he offered by way of explanation.
“Are there things you’re afraid he’ll say that you don’t want me to hear?”
“Yes.”
“Is this hard for you?”
Tabon laughed out loud. “You have no idea. Mainly, I don’t want you to hear his reaction when I tell him everything I’ve told you. As I said before, he was against me taking this assignment.”
Hearing that for the second time hurt worse than the first. “Am I really that bad?”
Tabon reached over and took her hand in his. “The opposite, actually. He knows that I have feelings for you, Ava. The other thing he objected to was my initiating a relationship with you as a way to be close enough to protect you. That bothered him a lot more.”
“So, how does this work?”
“I’m glad you asked, because we need to set some ground rules.”
She didn’t like the direction this conversation was headed. Rules had never been her strongest suit. She’d spent far too much time in the headmistress’ office because rules, as far as Ava was concerned, were meant to be broken.
She looked over at Tabon, who was grinning.
“Do you think this is funny?” she asked.
“Not at all. You just let me know in about the clearest way possible what you think of rules.”
Razor Page 7
